A service provider network (such as a data network) may include a number of multicast trees for delivering content such as video and/or audio data to various users. Any given multicast tree in the network may include one or more content receivers operably coupled to one or more routers and one or more transmission sources. The receivers, routers, and transmission sources may be coupled to each other via links (e.g., wireless and/or wired links, such as optical fiber links), which may span large distances. The transmission source may transmit content as one or more data streams to the routers via the links. The routers, in turn, direct the data stream over the links to other routers or various receivers. Thus, a multicast tree defines one or more paths extending from a source to one or more receivers.
The size of the multicast trees may be large and may continue to grow with the advent of new or additional services, such as switched digital video (SDV). SDV networks are known to dynamically transmit only a subset of available video streams, based on which of the video streams are selected by the users at any given time. Where a network is designed to multicast content to large numbers of users spread across large geographical regions, it is not unusual for the network to contain thousands of different multicast trees at any given time. In general, the larger a network becomes, the more challenging it is to for service providers to maintain and/or troubleshoot the network.